Water levels on the White River on Saturday provided some challenges for veterans with the Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Program. Members of the Oklahoma chapter of the organization participated Wicker Brother’s Fifth Annual Fly Fishing Tournament this past Saturday, held at Cranor’s White River Lodge in Cotter.(Photo: Submitted Photo)

After time had passed, Gayla, along with Floyd and his wife Margenia, also of Oklahoma, decided to go through and inventory all of Lloyd’s fly fishing equipment.

Gayla said it took the trio two days to go through rolls and rolls thread, hooks, rods, etc., and once done, they determined that between the two brothers, there was approximately $200,000 worth of stuff.

Program Lead Russell Dunlap of the Oklahoma chapter of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, was one of nearly 20 disabled veterans out on the White River this past Saturday as part of the Wicker Brother’s Fifth Annual Fly Fishing Tournament. The event was hosted by Cranor’s White River Lodge in Cotter.(Photo: Submitted Photo)

“There was fly fishing equipment in both of our houses, rooms set up for fly tying,” Margenia said with a laugh.

Gayla was at loss at first as to what to do with it all. She wanted to donate it, but she had no idea to who.

“A lot of organizations want you to donate money, they’re not looking to take ‘stuff,' ” Gayla said.

But then Gayla heard about Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

Approximately 20 disabled veterans from the Oklahoma chapter of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Program participated in the Wicker Brother’s Fifth Annual Fly Fishing Tournament. The group helps active disabled and disabled veterans use tying flies as therapy and fly fishing itself to build camaraderie among those who served in the military, and their families.(Photo: Submitted Photo)

According to the organization's website, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF) began in 2005 serving wounded military service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then, PHWFF has expanded nationwide, establishing its highly successful program in Department of Defense hospitals, Warrior Transition Units and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and clinics.

Gayla said PHWFF was happy to take her husband’s fly fishing equipment and put it to good use.

Chris Gorman, Program Lead in Tulsa, Okla., started an annual fly fishing tournament for the members of the PHWFF Oklahoma chapter on the White River in Cotter. The tournament had been held at Fulton’s Lodge in Cotter, a place that Margenia and Floyd had been coming to for years.

“Chris wanted this (the tournament) to be on Floyd’s home waters,” Gayla said.

The Lodge Greatroom at Cranor’s White River Lodge in Cotter served as a back drop for approximately 20 disabled veterans from Oklahoma, and their families, to share combat stories and play Uno.(Photo: Submitted Photo)

The Wicker Brothers had been taught fly fishing by their father back when they were boys growing up in New Mexico. Both wives recall that both men had gotten away from the hobby for a number of years, but both started back up around the same time.

Gayla recounted when the adult brothers had first gotten together to go fly fishing.

“Floyd had told Lloyd that they were going to take off the next morning at 4:30 a.m., and Lloyd complained that he really didn’t want to go out that early,” Gayla said with a chuckle.

But after Lloyd came back, Gayla said he had been re-hooked.

Russell Dunlap, PHWFF program lead for Oklahoma, is a wounded combat veteran himself. He said PHWFF has chapters in nearly all the 50 states and they approach veterans when they are in the hospital and use fly fishing as a rehabilitation tool on several levels.

He said the vets are encouraged to tie flies as a means to build dexterity in their fingers, but also as a project to keep their minds occupied.

“It was a program my wife found for me as a disabled vet,” he said.

This year’s group of Oklahoma veterans range in age from 48 to nearly 70, have served in Vietnam, Panama, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan and come from nearly all branches of the military.

Veterans with the Oklahoma chapter of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Program repaired some flies during the Wicker Brother’s Fifth Annual Fly Fishing Tournament held at Cranor’s White River Lodge in Cotter on Saturday.(Photo: Submitted Photo)

Dunlap said once a member joins and gets good at tying flies, they learn to build their own rods. The whole thing comes together when a member goes out to fish, and when they can catch a fish with a fly and rod they built themselves, Dunlap said there’s a tremendous amount of pride.

“It’s a different activity that brings us together,” he said. “We talk about our war stories and now we have Uno and fishing stories.”

PHWFF provides camaraderie for the vets, along with their families, which Dunlap says is very important. Not only do the families have an opportunity to see why these veterans fish, but they get to experience it themselves.

Dunlap recounts that one of the veteran’s children got to see an eagle while they were out on the White River, and for others it’s the first time they’ve been on a boat, or even fished.

But, most importantly, Dunlap says PHWFF provides a reason for some veterans to get off the couch and out of the house.

Gayla said she was especially touched year or so ago to hear a big, burly wounded Marine veteran tell the group that if it hadn’t been for this PHWFF group, he might very well not be alive today.

Gayla and Margenia said the brothers had traveled all over the world to fish, even “legally sneaking into Cuba,” as Margenia described.

Margenia and Floyd Wicker were married for nearly 47 years. Margenia said the pair had been vacationing at Fulton’s Lodge in Cotter for 15-18 years.

Floyd died last summer. Margenia then donated his fly fishing equipment to PHWFF too.

And then sadly Dale Fulton, owner and operator of Fulton Lodge, died Jan. 25 of this year.

Fulton’s Lodge was purchased by new owner Donald Cranor, who renamed the lodge Cranor’s. Following some remodeling, the lodge offers a more luxurious, tranquil experience, and the lodge greatroom and surrounding cabins were available to members of the PHWFF at no charge.

Alan Jackson of South Carolina, a longtime fishing buddy of the Wicker Brothers, said both brothers are looking down and are no doubt proud of what has evolved into the Wicker Brother’s 5th annual Fly Fishing Tournament for the PHWFF members of Oklahoma.

“Floyd saw how much good had come from Lloyd’s donation,” he said.

To donate equipment

Those who have fly fishing equipment or materials that are in good, serviceable condition, can donate to PHWFF by contacting these Northwest Arkansas groups: Bella Vista Fly Tyers, Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, Arkansas Trout Unlimited or Tightlines FFF. Contact information can be located at http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/programs/locations/arkansas/